THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE
(international title)
“Facetten der menschlichen Existenz”
(German title)
Feature Film, 90 Min, German
Genre: Psychological Drama/Horror/Arthouse
written by Natalie MacMahon
Logline:
In this psychological drama, an actress who has lost her sense of identity after years immersed in the surreal theatre play “The Human Experience” retreats to a remote summer holiday house, where an unexpected visitor pushes her to confront her primal instincts and the core of humanity.
Themes: Identity/ Instincts/ Overcoming Fear/What it means to be human
Longer description:
An actress, trapped in the role she has embodied for years, retreats to a remote summer house to spend time with her best friend, a photographer searching for truth. But as the scorching heat intensifies, so does her struggle to break free from the character that still haunts her.
Their time together is disrupted when the director of the play arrives—obsessed with keeping her in the role, blurring the lines between performance and reality. Drifting between waking life, dreams, and nightmares, she begins to lose herself, while animal instincts and the memory of a childhood giraffe become her only guidance.
A hypnotic psychological drama about identity, control, and the wild, untamed nature of humanity.
Who are you when you are no longer yourself?
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When one is pretending, the entire body revolts.
The fears we don’t face become our limits.
“I have done nothing all summer but wait for myself to be myself again.” (Georgia O'Keeffe)
“The whole world is wild at heart and weird on top.” (David Lynch)
“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” (Carl Jung)
“Everything that is visible hides something that is invisible.” (René Magritte)
Status: looking for producer
Official IG account: https://www.instagram.com/humanexperience_film/
Make peace with the fact that people hold different versions of you in their mind. I’m not what you think I am. You are what you think I am.
Screenwriter Statement:
What does it mean to be human? This question lingers at the heart of The Human Experience, a story that explores the fragile boundaries between identity, instinct, and performance. As someone who has lived in the world of acting, I know the eerie sensation of losing yourself in a role—when the lines blur, when the character takes up more space than you do. This film is an extension of that feeling, pushing it to its most surreal and unsettling extremes.
Faye’s journey is one of fear - of losing control, of surrendering to something primal, of no longer knowing where she ends and her role begins. But fear is not the enemy; it is a threshold. Beneath it lies transformation, instinct, and raw truth. As she spirals between waking life and hallucination, the wild world around her mirrors her unraveling mind. The oppressive summer heat, the whispering forest, the lingering presence of a childhood giraffe - these elements are not just memories; they are manifestations of her inner struggle.
At its core, The Human Experience is a hypnotic descent into the unknown, a battle for identity against the forces that seek to define us. It is a cinematic fever dream, a visceral exploration of what happens when we strip away the masks we wear - if we even can.
